


Gaara of the Sand

by HypnosThanatosTwin



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Confusion, Possesive Shukaku, Unhealthy Relationships, implied blood & gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 17:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12259215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HypnosThanatosTwin/pseuds/HypnosThanatosTwin
Summary: Gaara wakes up in the past and has no idea how he got there. What is even going on?





	1. Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo, I'm a casual watcher of Naruto. I've watched pretty much all of the young Naruto episodes, but lost interest early on in Shippuden and never really got back into the series. Everything I know about the rest of the story is from fanfiction and Narutopedia. What I'm trying to say is, please don't fry me over the fires of canonical accuracy, because this is just written for fun. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy. :)

Gaara wakes up and for a moment there is just confusion. Is he awake? Was he asleep? He shouldn't have been sleeping. Why is this so foreign, so familiar? There is his bedside table, the picture of his mother side by side with a picture of his siblings unbroken on it. Young, too young. Everything is worn, but whole.  
Everything is so wrong. 

The sand around him stirs in a sign of emotion he hadn’t succumbed to in over six years. What is happening? 

He blinks and his gaze falls onto the hand, peeking out from under his blanket. It’s too small. So small, the grains of sand a comfort and a prison all around him. Why is everything still here? He ignores the sound of moving sand to let his gaze drift across the room, trying to ignore that too small hand, the too small feel of his entire body, outside the window. It’s late afternoon. The sun is about to disappear behind the cliffs surrounding Suna and every building is still there. 

He can hear the rumblings of traffic, of his people talking, screams of children, laughter. Everything is there. Everything is so alive. This is wrong. This is not how he remembers. That entire section in the south had been buried under the exploding cliffs. Fires had burned and blackened the rest of it. Suna had smelled of smoke and sharp decay the last time he had seen it. 

Gaara tries to turn away. He has to think. Too small hands grasp his ears and he doesn’t even notice that he tumbles out of his bed as soft sand catches him. Encloses him. Shuts out the light and the unfamiliar, too familiar surroundings.

In the dark he leans against his sand and breathes. He breathes until his lungs stop hurting, until his hands stop shaking. 

“I don’t understand.” he says to himself and gasps at the too high, too young voice coming out of his mouth. Is this a dream? It doesn’t feel like it? His sand never feels so real in his dreams. Not that he is any good at dreams, never having slept much in his live. 

_Why are you afraid, Gaara?_ a deep, female voice echoes in his thoughts. A voice he had hoped never to hear again. A voice he had longed for, every minute since it had been gone. 

_Shukaku?_ he asks in his mind tentatively, hoping that he wouldn’t get an answer. Desperately clinging to the chance that he would.

 _Yes, my dear child?_ the demon sounds almost concerned, but that had always been the case. His only companion while the world hated him. 

_Are you still with me?_

_I’ll always be with you. I protect you, you know that. I love you, dear child._ The Ichibi whispers, sounding so sincere. The sand shifts around him, embracing him for comfort. He had missed this. Hated it and missed it. Too small hands reach up and cover his eyes, trying to cover his tears. It’s real. Whatever this is, it’s real. 

_I lost you._ Gaara admits. _You were taken from me._

 _When? I’m still here._ Shukaku insists, a flare of demonic chakra proving her words. When? Gaara looks at his hands, at his legs and his body. He’s probably five? Six? He reaches for his forehead, the scar marking it not there yet, five then. Relief floods him. 

_In eleven years._ he answers. _In eleven years we will be captured by a group of fanatics, who want to change the world and you will be sucked away to be used, to bring back Kaguya._

Gaara can feel the shock from his demon, the flare of blood-thirsty fury. 

_How do you know that name?_ her voice no longer comforting but sharp and brutal. Her chakra pulsing violently through his fragile body and Gaara curls into himself in pain. This too, is familiar. He can hear glass breaking outside his cavern of sand. _Who are you? Where is my Gaara?_

 _It’s me, Shukaku._ he hesitates, not comfortable to use the next word anymore, though he knows he has to, to get his demons trust. _Mother, it’s me. Just older. I don’t know how, but yesterday I was fighting in the fourth great shinobi war, losing everything, everyone. And now I’m here. I don’t know. I don’t know._

Demonic chakra floods his own, searching, cutting, twisting, binding. Gaara can’t tell if it’s hours or just minutes of agony before the chakra ebbs away, until the iron on his tongue dissipates. 

_Tell me everything._ Shukakus voice echoes through his mind. He tells her everything. He could not deny her. Not when he has her back again. Not when he wants her to go away.

 _My dear child, if what you say is true, we have a lot of work in front of us._ There is laughter echoing somewhere, insane with anger, fear and joy.

Gaara knows he should be terrified, but by the gods. He had missed this too.  
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it :)


	2. The Demon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, trying to get this plot-bunny to shut up with a one-shot didn't work...  
> So enjoy another little snippet :)

Shukaku watches from the earthen crock they have been sealed into for the last twelve years. Something is happening. They have been moved out of the high security archives into a room filled with people and Shukaku can't help but be intrigued. Maybe now a chance to escape the restrictions of this most uncomfortable seal would arise. Honestly, even a human soul would make a better prison than the pot they have been trapped in.

A woman seems to be in the center of all the busy hands and Shukaku narrows their gaze. A pregnant woman. Not yet ready to give birth for probably one or two more months, if the one tailed demon estimates that right. Not that they have a lot of experience, but they had been sealed into a human before. It had been a wrong fit, though. The body deteriorating too fast as it couldn't handle their chakra. 

But this, this is intriguing. 

“Are you sure?” a male asks the pregnant woman. The woman grasps his hand and nods. 

“I've given you two strong and healthy children, our village needs this. We have to risk it.” the male, red-headed, nods stoically and an old woman begins to paint a seal onto the pregnant woman's swollen belly. A seal Shukaku is not familiar with, but can decipher parts of. 

The people around the crock cannot hear the demon, and they maybe would have reconsidered their plans, could they have heard the laughter, sinister and joyful, escaping the one tailed beast. The ink stretches, words, phrases and signs filling up the room until they cover Shukaku’s prison, as well as the woman and every inch of the floor. The Ichibi studies the whole thing for just a moment and doubt seems to grow for just a second, then seven shinobi are kneeling and feeding their chakra into the seal, activating the transfer. 

It’s a blur of crimson, screams and the taste of iron. For a time Shukaku loses all sense of themselves and then they are in another cage. Roomier, but in the dark. No way to look outside. 

Shukaku let’s their chakra pulse, tries to feel out the new prison. It doesn’t fit right either. They begin to think humans are just not made to hold their essence, but then they notice their surroundings. It’s not the woman! Shukaku laughs and laughs as their chakra stretches and manipulates. It’s the unborn child! A human still in the works. Still forming. Perfect to form after their own needs. 

It’s too fragile, it needs to be stronger. It has to be capable of holding all of their chakra and using it to the full potential. The bijuu ignores the screams of agony outside their prison, as they work to form their cage into something useful to them. They can’t break the seal, they tried, but if they can’t get out, they’ll at least make sure they won’t be killed while trapped in here. 

Something stirs in the chaos of chakra, agony and laughter. A whisper of consciousness awakes as if from slumber. Shukaku twists inside her new prison and focuses on that small, powerful existence. 

_Oh what a sweet little thing this is._ they coo, wrapping their chakra protectively around it. Outside sand gathers and starts to rip and convulse. In splashes of blood and sand, the child known as Gaara is born. 

_I’ll protect you._ Shukaku whispers, their voice taking on a female tilt. _Don’t you worry. Mother will keep you safe._

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-  
TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it :)


End file.
